The morning was like any other as far as I'm concerned. Lucky was tending to Hermoine (his newborn) and I was at the stables feeding the horses. We had made plans with Zomb and another friend to do a joust for fun but were turned away at the jousting arena since it was already being used by fellow adventurerrs. Normally we would have simply jousted them for the spot and defeated them in shame but we were feeling kindly that morn and went back to the hall. It was here that Zomb recommended a trip to Minta since we hadn't left to see the country to our East in quite some time. Lucky was in full agreement since Ginger had been bothering him to be a better father to both Stir and Hermoine. I of course would tag along.

We couldn't find anybody else to come on the journey with us so left with just the three of us. After packing and purchasing our food we had to choose exactly where we would head. Mintat was the general idea but we weren't sure of what to do once we got there. It was both Zomb and Lucky who remembered that Hellman's Keep was located in the northern hills and would be a perfect destination. I was assured that I had been there before but honestly I can't remember.

We rode northeast to Honuda because the northern border entry would be the quckest entryway to the dungeon. It took two days to reach Honuda and with the help of my massmorph spell we weren't really bothered during the night at all. After staying the night there we kept heading northwest. When we were nearing the border it was getting dark so we spoke to the border patrol quickly and let them know we would be spending the night nearby. Thrice that evening we were disturbed during each of our shifts at watch. During the first watch a caravan of merchants came through and decided to do the same as us and stay the night on the Givemea side of the border. Later, another merchant band arrived. We spoke to both of the groups and while the first one refused any help we could offer by traveling together the second appreciated the concern and accepted. Eventually both groups allowed us to escort them. (A guard from the first caravan was to afraid and far to much of a pansy to have a duel with any three of us even after proclaiming us as mere simpletons.) During the third shift some creatures stumbled by but ran off before I could see what they were. They may have been afraid of the many guards from the merchants but more likely were afraid of fighting three high ranking Ziatic Guild members.

The next morning we went into Minta. Crossing the Givemea side was easy enough but we were forced to pay off the minataurs on the Mintan side. After arriving in Pern we split our ways with the merchants and headed north. The dungeon was located near the lake and in the hills north of Pern. We passed through a small village on the way but tried to cause as little trouble as possible. We ended up giving them 15 of our magical light pebbles to let us through but apparently it wasn't enough. That evening 4 minataurs were sneaking around our camp. My massmorph spell had worked perfectly so we decided to jump them. Lucky used our magical amulet to read one of their thoughts, and they were going to kill us. We fought them quickly without any major damage to ourselves. The next morning we made our way for the Keep. We were forced to leave our horses back a ways since the water level went close to the doors to the keep (up in the side of a cliff) We used our magical broom to fly to the door and entered on the East side. (The keep had two doors you could enter from)

Once inside the exploring began. At first it was relatively quick and easy. The first 10 or so rooms were pretty empty, but each had 3 or 4 lizardmen inside. We soon discovered this was the keep of lizardmen only since that was all we fought. We also found shrines and kitchens where it was obvious that lizardmen lived. After a quick border sketch of the dungeon and only minor exploring we decided to pick up the pace and head downstairs where we believed was a large room, perhaps a gathering place. We were right.

Down the stairs we found a small blocking wall at the entrance of a much larger room. We hid behind this while discussing what to do next. We had no idea what was behind the wall. Before we could do anything though more lizardmen attacked. We were preparing to fight but quickly foudn out it was far to many lizardmen to fight in hand to hand combat with this type of position in the room. We ran back upstairs and went into a room and closed the door behind us. On the way up I used both magical charges remaining in my Rod of Lightning. I saw it hit about 25 lizardmen but there were still plenty more. In the safety of this room I prepared another lightning spell, and we made a stand. Lucky opened the door and I let a bolt loose while Zomb shot a few arrows. This killed a dozen more leaving some room for us to run. We got into the hallway and ran to the other end. Now we were close enough to the door to get out if we had to. More and more lizardmen were coming up the stairs so I used all I had left at the moment. I was wearing a magical necklace that was full of fire balls, that when thrown explodes. I used 4 out of the 5 on the angry group. This really slowed them down, so next I prepared a fireball spell while the two others shot more arrows. What appeared to be a leader came up the stairs next. He seemed angry but I didn't wast any time. I let the fireball go down the hallway and it exploded within the group. It was made perfectly so that the fire didn't quite reach us but devistated more lizardmen. By now we had killed about 90 of them total. We knew we must be getting close to limiting their fighters to a point where we could fight hand to hand more easily. Now I prepared one more lightning bolt (essentially my last offensive spell of the day, except magic missles) to let go on them. While I was casting what looked like a king came up next. The other lizards bowed to him, and upon his head was a crown. He was yelling at us in a language we didn't understand and then began pounding his staff on the ground. I let the bolt fly, but just as it was about to hit him a force field appeared and blocked it. The lizard king kept yelling at us but I paid him no concern. Now I cast dispel magic on his field hoping to remove it. The field dissapeard but in the flash of magic a stone wall was now where there used to be stairs. There was no way to get down. We tried a few things to get through but nothing worked.

We stayed the evening in the keeps chapel and the next morning found some lizardmen gathering dead bodies. They ran from us but didn't go anywhere near the stairs like we hoped. So we gathered our belongings and headed home. We believe that down those stairs and in that huge room must have been quite a treasure for so many lizardmen to die like that. The king must also be a decent magician or have some nice magical items in his keep. We will go back again to finish those lizardmen off. 100 lizardmen was not enough to kill us. 100 lizardmen more are not enough to stop us from our task._________________